


Colourblind

by momjoon (NogitsuneStiles)



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Amusement Parks, Colors, M/M, Oneshot, Roller Coasters, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, minsung - Freeform, woochan - Freeform, woochan oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 14:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20193961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NogitsuneStiles/pseuds/momjoon
Summary: The world is a wonderful place. Only much more so if you manage to find your true soulmate - the one person who will turn all the whites, and greys, and blacks you see into colour at first touch.Woojin and Chan are in their twenties now and weary of living in the greyscale.Chan is tired of trying and ready to give up on ever seeing in colour.Woojin is convinced that his soulmate is just around the corner.





	Colourblind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MrSunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrSunshine/gifts).

> Oh well, I couldn't help but write this little oneshot as a birthday present for my lovely girlfriend after I read a wonderful soulmate AU prompt on twitter by @woogibearx aka Sher! (Sadly I can't get the specific link of the tweet of it to work as an embedded link right here, but the entire AU thread is full of amazing ideas, 10/10 would recommend for prime Woochan inspiration!) ♥
> 
> I had so much fun writing it, and I hope you will enjoy reading this as well!
> 
> xo joonie

His gaze is still focused on the dirty, dark ground, even now that the pair of shoes in front of him have vanished, stepped ahead of him, their distance getting bigger and bigger.

He exhales slowly, trying to calm his nerves, burying his trembling hands in the pockets of his dark blue denim jeans.

At least that’s what it said on the label when he bought them.

“Hyung? Come on, the line’s moving along…”

“What?”

Chan finally looks up at his two friends in front of him, who are now a considerable few steps ahead of him in the narrow line, and already the annoyed tutting behind him begins as he still takes more than a second to react.

Quickly he closes the distance again, moving along in the line for the roller coaster ride.

Geez, he hates these things.

Why the hell did he agree to come join them at the amusement park again?

“So…” Minho looks at him with a curious grin on his face. “How’d the interview go? You know, the one at that clothing store you kept rambling about for the last two months?”

“Great,” Chan smiles back, but it looks far from happy. “It was really good! They seemed to really like me. They were all smiles and laughter, and the questions felt like they were really easy to answer and not that forced like with other job interviews…”

“That sounds promising!”, Jisung blurts out, beaming with excitement.

“… and then they passed me a catalogue with blacked out details and asked me what colours the items on the pages were…”

“Assholes.”, Minho spits out, frowning and scoffing at the deceitfulness thrown point-blank in his best friend’s face. “What kind of dick move is that?! Asking people to name fucking colours?! All the clothing items have the colours attached to their labels, anyways, it’s not like you wouldn’t know if you actually held these in your hands!”

Chan can’t help but smile at how enraged he is, and how defensive of his rights.

“Well… it _is_ a clothing store, so… Sorting items, reading all the labels would definitely slow me down a lot as opposed to someone who doesn’t just see in greyscale…”

“This is some discrimination bullshit. Who do they think they are, the soulmate police?!”

“Minho, please…”, Jisung tries to calm his boyfriend down, nervously passing glances around to the people in line with them that have started to eye them suspiciously.

Minho clicks his tongue, taking a deep breath.

“I know…”, Chan interjects a little more calmly, “I’m not saying it’s not true… And yeah, it does suck to be singled out like that. But in the end, they’re just looking for people who would be best for the job…”

He tries to smile, and at this point he isn’t sure whether he’s trying to convince his friends or himself.

He has never believed in that marketing bullshit, the concept screaming down at him from every other billboard, all laid out for this perfect idea of finding the one special person who will just make all the whites and greys and blacks burst into colours and happiness at the first physical contact you make.

Colours.

He knows all of their names, and most of their codes to go with it, but he still has no idea what they truly mean. What’s so special about them. Sure, many websites, books and apps are helpful in trying to learn about the theory of which colour codes go best with what, but frankly, thinking about it too much has started to make him bitter, since in the end, that’s all it will truly be for him – theory.

He’s kept his own wardrobe to a very minimal colour scheme like one of the many praised capsule wardrobes so he won’t look like he dressed himself in the dark and completely out himself as _soulless_, as the media likes to nickname it. As if everything in their society didn’t already reinforce it enough that your one and only goal should be finding your soulmate, because living in the greyscale is just not a way to live, right?

He’s started to resent it.

How are you supposed to know it’s better when you’ve never missed it in your entire life?

When the greyscale is all you’ve ever known?

When you don’t know if you actually prefer the colours to the greys?

When even some lovers in happy relationships never experience this burst of colour in all of their lives?

It’s fucking stupid.

And it became all the more unbearable after having two of his best friends fall in love and experience just that – the commercialised and idolised burst of colour, and the happiness that they now shared all the more because of it.

Suddenly, it was no longer just on TV, but it was right in front of him, and real.

Just not for Chan.

Seeing in colour wouldn’t make him happier.

It wouldn’t change who he was.

And it sure as hell wouldn’t cure his insomnia.

So, there was that.

“I’m very sorry… But I’m sure you’ll find a better offer!”, Jisung smiles at him, trying to be encouraging and save the mood before it gets irrevocably depressing.

“Thanks, man…”, Chan smiles back, and steps closer to the ride with them yet again. 

He swallows dryly, and he feels his heart pound harder in his chest the closer the actual ride comes.

He should have just sat this one out.

-

_Woojin: where r u?_  
_Woojin: I’m almost at the head of the line_  
_Woojin: is everything okay?_  
_Woojin: you said you wanted to be here half an hour ago_

Woojin takes a deep breath, quickly looks up and around him to make sure the line hasn’t moved again while he was typing.

His phone chimes softly, and he looks back down at the string of messages that come in.

_Hyunjin: I’m so sorry, Woojin..._  
_Hyunjin: I just didn’t know how to tell you_  
_Hyunjin: I’m not coming today_  
_Hyunjin: It just_  
_Hyunjin: It didn’t happen for me_  
_Hyunjin: I can’t do this_  
_Hyunjin: Not again_  
_Hyunjin: I’m sorry_

Woojin closes his eyes for a long moment, sighing quietly. 

Not that it was the first time this was happening to him.

He had been dumped over the smallest of things, with most of the people he had been dating not even being able to actually admit that it was over not being true soulmates.

Some of them even came up with the idea that it was simply because _maybe two men weren’t supposed to be soulmates in the first place,_ and that it was just some kind of abnormally that wasn’t included in the entire phenomenon.

From everything Woojin had heard about the colours of rainbows, and their significance for the LGBTQ+ community, he thought that it was quite ironic and ridiculous to think that someone wouldn’t be able to have a soulmate of the same gender when the whole thing revolved around bright and plentiful colours that someone of that community would have had to be able to see in the first place.

He gathered himself for a moment, caught up with the moving line in front of him, then unlocked the display of his smartphone again.

_Woojin: I’m sad we couldn’t deal with this in person, but I understand  
Woojin: I’m wishing you all the best, and hope that you will find that special person x_

He exited the chat, his thumb hovering over the display for a long, long moment, before he temporarily deactivated his profile, finally closed the _seoulmates_ app and deleted the little icon from his phone display.

It would be nice to finally have someone to share his life with, especially while he was still in his twenties, and able to experience all these new things together. To have someone to re-discover life with together. But he had grown tired of the ‘all or nothing’-mentality that people at his age seemed to develop more and more, obsessed with the idea that it couldn’t possibly be anyone _but_ your soulmate you could start a life with together, no matter how much you loved someone. 

Maybe it was time for him to take a break from all the hopeless, forceful dating nonsense and just focus on himself for a little while.

After all, if it was really about finding his soulmate, he was sure that destiny would have much more of a say in it than some dating app.

Somewhere out there he could really find the one, even if he would just stumble across him in the most unusual of places.

He was sure of it.

-

Jisung’s excited expression faded a little when he looked at the oldest among them, seeing how even the last hint of colour had faded from his already pale skin.

“Do you really wanna do this, hyung…? I’m sure they’ll let you wait downstairs if you ask them too.”

Chan shook his head, but flinched at the screams of the people rushing past in one of the roller coaster rides. 

“Hey, it can’t be that bad, right? I’m sure I’ll be fine, and my nerves are just all over the place for nothing…”, he chuckled, trying to ignore how cold and sweaty his hands were, the uncomfortable dryness in his mouth.

“I promise I won’t make fun of you if you back out now,” Minho agreed, before grinning softly. “I’ll just tease you about it all the way home…”

Jisung frowned at his boyfriend, but chuckled as he just winked at him, stealing a quick little apologetic kiss from his lips.

“I’ll be fine. I want to do this”, Chan reaffirmed one last time, before the ride came to a halt right in front of them, and the security gates opened after the other patrons had gotten out of their seats and made their way to the exit.

He swallowed dryly, climbing into one of the two seats in the last row, with Minho and Jisung sitting down in the row just in front of him.

The park employee reached their rows after checking all the other people’s safety equipment, noticing the empty spot next to Chan.

“One more single rider, please!”, he announced loudly, scanning the crowd in line.

“Here!”

Woojin raised his hand as he saw the many turning heads in front of him, couples and families who didn’t want to split up, looking for someone to quickly fill in the spot so they could get their turn faster with the next approaching vehicle.

He thanked the people who let him pass and sat down in the last empty seat of the ride next to a stranger who seemed to be about his age, light skin and his hair almost white.

“Oh… sorry…!”, Woojin mumbled softly, chuckling as the employee reached over the stranger to check he was safely secured in his seat as well.

“No problem…”, Chan replied quietly, seemingly tense, and not at all really excited.

Woojin looked over at him as the ride slowly set into motion, manoeuvring them out of the boarding area and agonisingly slowly pulling them up the first, and very long and high drop, creating even more tension and excitement for all patrons except for this one.

“Are you okay?”, Woojin couldn’t help but ask over the sound of the rattling and clanking of the ride, noticing how extremely tensely the young man next to him was gripping the bars.

“I’m-“

Oh God, there went his voice. He sounded even more of a mess than he thought he was.

“I’m just a little nervous. I’ll be okay-“

Woojin smiled sympathetically, not really understanding what someone who was seemingly so deadly afraid was doing on a roller coaster like this.

“Are you sure? You look like you’re going to pass out…”

There was a soft chuckle in his voice that distracted Chan from the people screaming in front of them out of excitement, and the tipping point of the drop drawing nearer.

“Here.”

Woojin let go of his bars that he was only holding onto to keep his hands busy and out of the way.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, whether it was his appearance or the fact that he was so terribly out of place on this ride, but there was just something about the stranger that seemed to draw him in, like a moth flying closer to the flame.

Maybe it was just yet another case of Woojin being too selfless and helpful for his own good, in case the stranger’s stomach just wouldn’t cooperate with the ride at all.

“Take my hand.”

Chan looked at the hand he offered him, the nice gesture he gave him so freely, and got terribly ashamed as he realised how disgustingly cold and sticky his own hands had to be at this point.

“I… I think I’ll be fine…”, he gasped, finally really looking at the stranger next to him.

Fuck, he was handsome.

This was really, really bad timing for him to be such a nervous wreck, damn it.

Woojin smiled at him, and it looked so honest and warm that it almost made Chan tear up with how freaking nervous he was.

“Are you sure?”

Chan felt like he was going into full panic mode when he realised the ride was finally about to drop, his breathing going fast and shallow now.

“No-…!”, he finally blurted out, his embarrassment ultimately engulfed by sheer panic and fear.

The stranger was still holding out his hand, smiling at him encouragingly, and Chan managed to peel away one of his hands from the bars, reaching for the stranger’s hand just before the ride was about to drop, the first few seats already tipping over the edge, and the final pull only seconds away.

Woojin reached for Chan’s hand, holding onto it tightly.

The ride dropped and the amusement park flew by, the screams of the people around them filled their ears with so much noise it was drowning out their own.

And just then, skin on skin, their hearts missing a beat at the sudden drop and rush of adrenaline, both of their worlds burst into colours.


End file.
